VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Jose or Tromso?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’s own page.

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. San Jose 30, Tromso 8: San Jose leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Tromso 36: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Tromso 27: San Jose leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Tromso 14: San Jose leads by 64 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Tromso 45: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Tromso 15: San Jose leads by 33 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Tromso 11: San Jose leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Tromso 32: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Tromso.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseTromso

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseTromso
Official language-Norwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation25 m20 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseTromso
City population1,013,24079,943
People per km²2,16732
Museums within 10 km198
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Jose or Tromso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.